January 13, 2012

The JM-Mayo rivalry: Games 11-20

We had a surprisingly nice reaction to yesterday's post that included recaps of the first 10 boys hockey games ever played between Mayo and JM.

By "surprisingly nice" I mean 4 e-mails (thank you to those folks; I appreciate you taking the time to write). And, anyone who watches Family Guy knows that one e-mail equals 1 million viewers (in this case, readers), so I guess 4 million people liked the recaps.

That's good, because we have 10 more today. Here are games 11-20 in the JM-Mayo rivalry. You might have heard of some guys named Strobel and Lecy, whose names show up in our recaps for the first time today. Oh, and don't skip ahead, but Game #17 might be the best one ever played in this rivalry. It's right up there, anyway. I said don't skip ahead. ... HEY! Don't. ... OK, carry on.

GAME 11 / Dec. 18, 1971 / JM 7, Mayo 0

JM's Powell fills big brother's skates

Lee Powell watched his older brother, Clark, post five shutouts and lift JM to the Southern Minnesota Hockey League championship during the 1970-71 season. At just 5-feet-7, 108 pounds, Lee picked up where his brother left off, stopping 15 shots to earn his first varsity shutout in his first game against Mayo. Powell passed a big test early, stopping Mayo's Jim Fordham on a penalty shot in the middle of the first period. The play -- Powell poke-checked the puck before Fordham could shoot -- preserved a 1-0 Rockets lead. Rod Powell scored the game winning goal just 5 seconds into the game. On the opening faceoff, he slid the puck to the Mayo blue line, caught up to it first and blasted a shot past Spartans goalie Tony Brown (40 saves). Rod Powell, Jim Radke and Tom Herzog scored two goals each, and Wes DeVries had one goal.

GAME 12 / Jan. 15, 1972 / JM 6, Mayo 0

Rockets roll in front of full house

JM broke open a close game with four second-period goals in front of more than 1,800 fans at Graham Arena. It marked the Rockets second shutout of Mayo in the 1971-72 season. Brad Sutton made it 1-0 JM after one, then the Rockets pumped in four goals in the second, despite committing six penalties in the period. Lee Powell stopped 11 shots for his second straight shutout of the Spartans. Ted Reynolds scored two goals for the Rockets, while Tom Herzog had a goal and two assists.

GAME 13 / Dec. 9, 1972 / Mayo 3, JM 1

'D' helps Mayo snap 6-game skid vs. Rockets

Mayo coach Lorne Grosso put a strong emphasis on defense in practices leading up to this game and it paid off. Goalie Tony Brown made 25 saves and kept JM off the board after Joe Mount's goal at 6:47 of the first period. Grosso also praised defensemen Dave Amundson, Jim Buske, Dan Robinson and Jim Juhl. Lee Powell made 26 saves for the Rockets, but Mayo's Fred Siekert scored two goals and Jim Fordham had one. Siekert's first goal -- on a power play -- came with just 1 second to go in the second period and was the game winner. The win snapped Mayo's 6-game losing streak against JM.

GAME 14 / Feb. 10, 1973 / JM 4, Mayo 4

Tie preserved by a crossbar

Rockets goalie Lee Powell put on a superb show, making 43 saves in the first tie between Rochester's rival hockey teams. However, the goalie's best friend kept the Rockets from losing in front of more than 1,600 fans at Graham Arena. With 34 seconds to go in OT, Powell tumbled to the ice and the puck squirted to Mayo's Keith Kurland, who was all alone, 10 feet from a yawning net. Then ... "It hit the crossbar. I just can't believe it, but it hit the crossbar," Kurland told the P-B after the game. JM put on a big rally to force OT. Mayo led 4-1 early in the third period, but JM's Jim Scheid, Dan Christopherson and John Stark scored in a span of 4:36 to tie it. Stark's tying goal came with 5:12 to go in the third. Fred Siekert scored twice for Mayo and goalie Tony Brown made 31 saves. (From the front page of the P-B on this date: The White House annouces 142 U.S. Prisoners Of War to be released -- 115 in North Vietnam and 27 in South Vietnam).

GAME 15 / Dec. 8, 1973 / Mayo 6, JM 0

Sophomores spark Spartans

A pair of talented Mayo sophomores played key roles in this Spartans victory, their second-ever shutout against the Rockets. In front of an announced crowd of 2,100, Eric Strobel scored the first two goals of the game, and sophomore goalie Cliff White stopped 12 shots to post his first varsity shutout. Just four games into the season, the 15-year-old Strobel had already accumulated 10 goals and three assists. JM's Lee Powell stopped 22 shots in the loss. Mayo also received goals from Chuck Molnar, Dave Amundson, Dean Dornack and Al Brown.

GAME 16 / Feb. 9, 1974 / Mayo 7, JM 3

Spartans pull away in second period

Mayo scored five times in the second period to break open a close game and beat JM for a fourth consecutive time. JM scored all of its goals in the third period, but trailed 6-0 by the time it got on the board. John Stark scored all three Rockets goals, recording the most anti-climactic hat trick of the Mayo-JM rivalry. Al Brown had a pair of goals for Mayo and five others scored once each -- Eric Strobel, Bob Robinson, Dave Amundson, Pete Talmo and Charlie Molnar. The Spartans outshot the Rockets, 20-16. "Mayo really took out all their frustrations on us," JM coach Gene Sack said. "I hope we'll be better prepared for them next time." The teams would meet again, just nine days later, with their seasons on the line.

GAME 17 / Feb. 18, 1974 / Mayo 3, JM 2 (3 OT)

First playoff meeting goes to Mayo in dramatic fashion

It took seven years for JM and Mayo to finally meet in the postseason, and their first playoff matchup didn't disappoint. Their seasons were on the line, big-time bragging rights, too, in a Region 1 playoff quarterfinal in front of 1,750 fans at Graham Arena. With time ticking down in the third overtime of a great goaltending battle, it all ended on a hard shot from 25 feet out. Mayo's Doug Ritts clanked a slap shot from the middle of the ice off the post and in, behind JM goalie Lee Powell. It ended one of the wildest and longest games in Rochester high school hockey history. Ritts' shot never left the ice, but it lifted Mayo into the Region 1 semifinals and ended JM's season, 5:54 into the third OT. Ritts was the hero of the night, having set up Mayo's first two goals, which tied the score after JM had taken a 2-0 lead. "I figured if we just kept getting shots to the net, one was bound to go in," Ritts told the P-B. The goal ended a great battle between Powell (34 saves) and Mayo goalie Cliff White (35 saves). Dan Campbell and Bob Reynolds staked JM to a 2-0 first-period lead, but the Rockets couldn't beat White again. Both goalies turned away breakaways in the third OT, while Mayo's Eric Strobel whistled a shot just inches wide in the final minute of the first OT.

GAME 18 / Dec. 7, 1974 / JM 5, Mayo 3

Lecys lift JM

Brothers Mark and Scott Lecy each had a hand in two of the Rockets goals as JM snapped a five-game losing streak to Mayo. The largest crowd to date to witness a JM-Mayo game was on hand -- close to 2,500 people (2,153 paid admissions and more than 300 people admitted on Rochester athletic season passes). This game marked the first time that both teams had been undefeated when they faced each other (both teams were 4-0-0 going into the game). Scott Lecy, listed at 5-feet-7, 155 pounds, scored the game winner when he took a pass from freshman Bruce Aikens at the Mayo blue line and skated in 1-on-1 against Mayo d-man Jim Juhl (listed at 6-2, 225). Lecy faked one way, switched directions and got around Juhl. Lecy then beat Mayo goalie Cliff White at 12:31 of the third. Both Lecys had a goal and an assist. Mike Graham, Bruce Aikens and Jim Scheid also had a goal and an assist each. Mayo received one goal each from eric Strobel, Steve Dorschner and Juhl.

GAME 19 / Feb. 8, 1975 / JM 4, Mayo 2

Rockets rally from early deficit

Mayo jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but JM answered in short order and rallied to beat the Spartans for a second time this season. Eric Strobel and Steve Dorschner scored in the first 12:58 for Mayo, but Mark Lecy countered for JM just 7 seconds after Dorschner's goal. Jim Scheid then scored with 28 seconds to go in the second period to tie the score 2-2. Scott Lecy fed Bruce Aikens for a short-handed goal at 5:35 of the third, and Jeff Dey capped the scoring with a power play goal. "I knew two wouldn't be enough to beat JM," Mayo coach Lorne Grosso said. "If we could've gotten the third one right away, it might have been a different story." Strobel nearly made it 3-0 Mayo with 4:50 to go in the opening period. He came in alone on a breakaway and went to his backhand when JM goalie Steve Bowron dropped down, but Bowron slid across the crease and robbed Strobel.

GAME 20 / Dec. 6, 1975 / JM 4, Mayo 2

Scheid puts on a show

JIm Scheid had one of the better individual performances in the first 20 games between these rivals. He scored all four of JM's goals, sparking the Rockets to their third consecutive victory against Mayo. JM outshot Mayo by a big margin, 30-11. Cliff White had 26 saves in the loss; Steve Bowron made nine saves for JM. "He's a great, money player, a guy we have to depend on when the chips are down," JM coach Gene Sack said of Scheid, a fourth-year varsity player. Scheid sealed the win in a 3-second span in the third period. At 9:54, he jammed in a rebound of a Scott Lecy shot for a 3-2 lead. On the ensuing faceoff, Scheid dumped the puck into the Mayo zone and chased hard after it. The puck bounced off the skate of a Mayo defenseman, directly to Scheid, who fired it past a startled White to make it 4-2.The big game gave Scheid 14 points for the season (8-6--14) through just five games. Eric Strobel and Steve Dorschner scored for Mayo.

TrackBack

Comments

Oh how I remember that game JM played against Mayo in 1975
our son, Jim Scheid, scored all four goals for JM. I was a tour guide at Mayo in those days and a secretary in the office had given me the article about the game. Jim happened to pick me up from work that day and I was so excited telling him about the article. When we got home Jim got a shovel out to go after the snow and I asked him if he wasn't going to come in and see the article. He said, no he'd see it later.
He was truly an unselfish hockey player. He loved to be the playmaker and set up his teammates. To this day he still hasn't looked at a huge scrapbook that a fan at Wisconsin made for him with the whole year in it. Those kids that played back then played for the love of the game and there was no checking from behind and players being mean spirited. I hope the game of hockey gets it's ruled changed to protect players from being checked from behind. Thanks guys, you do a great job on your blog.